Is it vital to have an index page in your root eg index.html, index.php

Question

I have and index.php page in my root that simple directs to what I would consider my homepage,

like so:

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: /lake-district-cottages/" );
?> 

is it best to just remove the index page and set my true index in my htaccess or is it required that I have a file called index?

Answer 1

Not needed, as long as you set a different one in htaccess you'll be fine.